Should NFL's Gregg Williams Be Banned, Fined Or Pardoned For Bounties?

Gregg Williams, then the defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints, in August 2010.

Chris Graythen
/ Getty Images

Originally published on March 5, 2012 12:22 pm

Gregg Williams, who has spent time as an assistant or head coach at six NFL teams, is meeting with league investigators today to talk about what he's admitted was "a bounty pool of up to $50,000 over the last three seasons that rewarded players with thousand-dollar payoffs for knocking targeted opponents out of games while he was the New Orleans Saints' defensive coordinator," The Associated Press reports.

"Bountygate" is quickly becoming a scandal that touches not just the Saints, but the other teams where Williams has coached, including the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans and Washington Redskins. (He just joined the St. Louis Rams as an assistant.) The issue is that while rewarding players for great plays is one thing, rewarding them for hurting opponents is something else indeed.

Washington Post columnist Tracee Hamilton says this is the NFL's "put-up-shut-up moment." At a time when the league is trying to show it's serious about protecting players from concussions and from dirty play, she writes, Commissioner Roger Goodell "needs to send that message to every team in the league: Hire Gregg Williams and his ilk at your own peril. In other words, put a bounty on his head."

Basketball's Charles Barkley, though, said on today's Dan Patrick Show that whoever blew the whistle on Williams is "a punk to snitch" like that. And, he said there were such bounties in the NBA when he was a player.